Charlotte Ashley – Book seller, collector, writer, editor, historian

It’s heeeeeere! Voting for the Prix Aurora Awards has finally opened, and I get to go make ticky-marks next to some of my best, most favourite people in Canadian SFF. And you could too – actually, AS A MATTER OF FACT – you have now the rare opportunity to put a ticky-mark next to me! My short story, “La Héron“, is up for Best Short Story-English.

Between now and midnight EST on July 23rd, 2016, you can download the voter’s packet & vote for the best of Canadian SFF if you are a CSFFA member. Just visit http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/, log in to your account (or, hell, join and make an account) and play along. The awards will be given out at When Worlds Collide in Calgary, Alberta the weekend of August 12-14th, 2016.

Speaking of Canadian awards… “La Héron” has also been longlisted for the Sunburst Award in their new short fiction category! The short list will be announced July 5th, and the winners September 14th. The list is spectacular, including some of the best writers in the world, full-stop. There’s nothing you can do to help my chances here, but thank you for asking. I’ll have my fingers crossed at home.

This weekend, I will be at Ad Astra 2016 in Richmond Hill, Ontario. This is a really fun local genre con with a focus on literature – busy, family-friendly, and well-run! I will be there the whole weekend, but if you need to nail me down more exactly, here is where I can be found:

It’s funny: I am phenomenally good at reporting trivial news. If a customer buys me a coffee? I come home gibbering to my partner like I won the lottery. I will tell anyone I meet about how my daughter learned to do a handstand. My new kitchen faucet? Don’t get me started. This is a BIG DEAL. It’s CLEAN and SHINY and CHROME. You won’t believe it, this faucet.

Big news? The act of passing it along gives me a kind of performance anxiety. If the faucet’s deserving of the operatic treatment, what is left for a kitchen renovation?

I didn’t renovate my kitchen. But I was nominated for an Aurora Award.

So that’s the first thing. I am incredibly excited, despite my subdued appearance, that “La Héron” will be one of the six finalists for “Best English Short Fiction“. The awards will be given out at Canvention 36, hosted by When Words Collide in Calgary, Alberta on the weekend of August 12-14th 2016.

I don’t think I will be there unless a Mysterious Benefactor wants to pony up for a plane ticket, but I will be cheering from a distance. I will also be voting! All CSFFA members are allowed to vote for their favourites in each category. And if you don’t know who to vote for? There will be a voter’s packet released to members by June 15th 2016. “La Héron” will be in the packet; one more way to read the story for free.

So let me tell you about May.

I have two stories coming out on May 1st. The first, “La Clochemar”, is in Clockwork Canada ed. Dominik Parisien. In celebration, I will be attending two – count ’em, TWO – launches in early May. The first will be at Ad Astra on Friday, April 30th, 9pm-11pm, in the Sheraton Parkway Toronto North Hotel. All the cool kids will be there, so hopefully you will be too.

The second will be the publisher’s launch on Tuesday, May 10th at the Supermarket Restaurant & Bar in Toronto. Even MORE cool kids will be there. I will be reading from my story at both events.

But wait! There’s more!

My novelette “More Heat Than Light” is out next month in the May/June 2016 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction! Welcome to an alternative Republic of Quebec, where the French Revolution was taken up enthusiastically by the new colony’s many residents. But hostilities against the English continue, and the wilderness is full of very large, very hungry critters who are waiting for this precarious new world order to come crashing down…

The issue should hit newsstands May 1st, at which time you can buy it in stores or in e-format from Amazon.

And finally, a sale. F&SF has also offered to be a home for my newest swashbuckling romp, “A Fine Balance.” This is the tale of two perfectly-matched legendary duellists who find their rivalry is being meddled with by persons unknown. Chases, escapes, daring duels and miracle feats! You know, the usual. It’s going to warm up so best call the McKinney’s best AC Repair company if your AC isn’t working because this will heat up your house!

The release date is TBA, but hopefully I will make that announcement more promptly than I have managed to make those above.

Alright, me and every other writer, right? Well, we all deserve them, I think; but the power to crown us with laurels is in your hands. Enter Up and Coming.

Compiled by S.L. Huang & Kurt Hunt, Up and Coming contains 230 short science fiction/fantasy stories by 120 different writers, all of whom are eligible for this year’s John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. The Campbell is not strictly a Hugo Award, but it is given out at the same time. Anyone who made their jump to professional writing in the last year or two is eligible. Up and Coming is FREE to download up until March 31st, 2016 – then it will VANISH FOREVER (probably.)

Two of my stories, “La Héron” and “Sigrid Under the Mountain,” are in Up and Coming and yes, I am eligible for the Campbell. But I hope you’ll consider me beyond that.

Canadians, I hope you will consider “La Héron” for the Aurora Award – Short Fiction. Nominations for the Aurora are open until MARCH 19TH, 2016. To nominate me (and/or anyone else you deem deserving,) you must be a member of the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association. You can join, add to the eligibility list, nominate and vote at http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/aurora-awards/nominate/.

As a final note: Up and Coming is the only place to get “La Héron” free online! Grab it now while you can!

I had the great pleasure of “moderating” this panel on world-building over at the 49th Shelf! Panelists Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Leah Bobet, Corey Redekop, Kate Blair, and Adam Lewis Schroeder gave their perspectives on some world-building questions I fielded, with great results.

Writers, this goes above and beyond your usual “how to build a magic system” panel. These are some smart, literary speculative fiction writers with some really interesting insights on how a speculative world works, at its heart. I really recommend giving it a read!

Last month, I went to a launch of Exile Editions’ latest anthology, Playground of Lost Toys(ed. Colleen Anderson & Ursula Pflug.) I didn’t really want to go. Lost Toys? I imagined an anthology of creepy dolly stories. And who were those editors, anyway? I went to the launch because I had friends in the anthology – sorry guys – that’s it.

I should have known better.

I’ve been familiar with Exile as a Canadian publisher for years, but up until a few years ago, I’d thought of them as a literary small press. They published Morley Callaghan and George Elliott Clarke; Leon Rooke and Daniel David Moses. Good ‘ol Canadian Literature. Not, frankly, my hat, but stuff we dutifully stocked at the store.

Then, out of nowhere, they published Dead North, an anthology of Canadian zombie stories. I thought this was super-weird, coming from Exile, but the cover art was so good that I overcame my boredom with zombies and bought it. I was pleasantly surprised: Dead North was a solid mix of literary and speculative fiction, zombie stories that did more work than just being gory thrill-rides. Then came Fractured, stories of the Canadian post-apocalypse. Another subject I thought had been done to death, but Dead North was good enough that I opted to give the creative team a chance. Fractured was another very solid book, managing to present original, literary work despite the well-trod path it started on.

Then came Playground, and, like I said, I thought the subject was silly. Despite loving the previous two anthologies, I let my prejudice rule my head. Toys are dumb! It’s probably all going to be horror, anyway. The publisher obviously doesn’t know anything about speculative fiction! Rawr, I am a jerk!

Well, the launch was amazing, for starters. Six readers, great stories, and one impromptu Bowie serenade. The food was good, there was beer, and my friends were there. I bought the book to be generous, but I read through it in two days. Fully half the stories made me laugh out loud, and I am a tough customer. The book was great. It looked so stupid (again, sorry) but it was great.

I learned my lesson, right? Ha ha! Ha! Ha.

About a year ago, Exile put out a call for their next anthology: Clockwork Canada. Yep, Steampunk. And – you’d think I would know better by now – I rolled my eyes. Like, Steampunk, guys. Doesn’t Exile know this has been done to death? I know, I am the worst. Not a generous bone in my body. Only after I spoke with the editor, Dominik Parisien, did I even consider submitting, because he assured me they were looking for “Canadian alternative history of all kinds,” not just your usual airship stories. Yah, after four amazing anthologies, I still needed a tête-à-tête with the editor to convince me to even think about it.

Oh my God, am I ever glad I did. Dominik bought my offering, “La Clochemar” (no doubt because he had no idea what an asshole I had been about the whole Exile project,) and Exile managed to get us this ridiculously beautiful cover (right.) I am alongside some absolutely brilliant writers inside – writers who were probably far less diva about the whole thing than I was. All in all, the book seems set up to be another brilliant addition to what has been a brilliant series of speculative/lit short story anthologies. I… well, I am very excited.

Exile, Dominik – I am so, so sorry. You’ve never let me down! And look, people – here’s my pitch: we won’t let you down either. This is gonna be great.

You can pre-order Clockwork Canada now! It’s slated for release in early May 2016. Available from:

I’ve had quite a few links lately from readers looking for “La Héron,” my fairy-swashbuckling story from the March/April 2015 issue of F&SF. Here’s a quick PSA on that front:

When the March/April 2015 issue was new, the story was available to read free on Kindle. THIS IS NO LONGER THE CASE. To find the story now, you need to either rustle up a copy of the issue (available for sale through the F&SF website) OR, if you are an SFWA member, you can read it at the SFWA forums.

Why the SFWA privilege? Well, my pretties, that’s because “La Héron” is on the 2015 Nebula Suggested Reading List! I’m pretty pleased about this, and absolutely flattered that people are still interested all these months later. If you’re able, I hope you’ll read it! And if you like it, feel free to click the “suggest” thumb and encourage others to read it too! It will put a smile on someone’s face – even if it’s just mine.

I do enjoy statistics. I like to look at my accomplishments as sheer numbers, compare them year to year. Find the way of spinning them that makes me look best. 2015 was a rotten year personally, but maybe it wasn’t so bad from a writerly point of view?

In 2015, I submitted 10 stories 30 times. I sold 6 of these 10 stories, trunked 2, and continue to submit another 2. In 2014, I submitted roughly the same number of stories 76 times and only sold 4, so this is a distinct improvement.

In 2015, I read 14 novels. Much better than 2014’s “fewer than 10!” I also read scores of short stories, anthologies, and some Hesiod – the Theogony. A dozen of the novels I read this year were by women, half of those were women of colour. The other two novels were Jeff VanderMeer. My favourite book of the year was probably Hillary St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, though Helen Oyeyemi’s Boy, Snow, Bird came close (the problematic ending ruined it,) as did Jo Walton’s Among Others (a wonderful, cozy book!) I’m starting 2016 mired in Herodotus’s Histories, though, so I don’t expect nearly so good a show of 2016.

In 2015, I wrote 40,000 words of new fiction and another 17,000 words of non-fiction. I completed 3 new short stories and made significant headway on another two. This despite nearly three full months without writing a word. I’ll take it. It will do.

In 2015, I slowed down, but I did not stop. I like statistics because they give me something concrete to look at. My feeling will always be that I did nothing or, at least, not enough. But looking at the numbers, I feel better. If 2016 is at least this successful, I will be satisfied.

That’s the weird part: I wasn’t. I actually had a horrifying personal year and spent a lot of time depressed, in shock, and unable to work. My relationship was on the rocks, I lost my daycare subsidy and had to pull my kids out, was forced to drop to working part time, found a strange lump on my daughter’s neck, lost editorial work, learned way more than I wanted to about the mental healthcare system, the children’s aid society, and substance abuse; and got poison ivy – in my eye. Everything is a lot better now, but for a while there it was everything I could do to just get out of bed, feed my kids & show up to work. Write? Submit? Ha!

And yet, I sold more stories than I ever have before. And I sold them more quickly and easily, to better venues, than ever before.

Your craft must be improving!

Well, maybe. All of my “pro” sales were new stories – written in late 2014 or early 2015. Maybe these were better than the stories I wrote in 2013 and 2014. But most of them – including the stories I am most in love with and most proud of – are old. They’d been submitted 10-20 times. I’d trunked some of them, sure they’d never sell. And yet.

Blind luck?

Maybe. Swing enough times and, statistically, you’ll hit, right?

But something was different this year. The same stories that were form-rejected in 2013 mysteriously bypassed the slush pile and landed me sweet, thoughtful personal rejections from the top editors in the field in 2015. I had one story go from submission to published inside of a month.

And the best part? 4/5 stories I published this year were the “featured” stories from the issues they appeared in. My work was singled out by editors, reviewers, and readers. 2014 was the year of feeling lucky, or maybe like someone had made a mistake. In 2015, I started to hope I deserved the attention I was getting.

I think I see where you are going with this.

In Toronto, we have an arts grant that is earmarked for “emerging” writers. I used to think that was an odd designation – emerging. Because you had to have several professional sales in order to qualify as “emerging.” I thought of “emerging” as being a butterfly half-cracked out of its cocoon, or a baby that’s crowned but not delivered. Emerging. Not yet emerged. All writers are emerging. Surely a writer with pro credits has emerged?

I see now that “emerging” means something else. It’s a designator of momentum. It means “on the rise.” It has nothing to do with how much you have or haven’t written. It isn’t even an indicator of talent or success. It’s a muddier thing, a sort of metacultural sense that, at some point, you will break through. It draws the eye. Arts organizations like to invest in it. Publishers want to get in on it. Other people want to be associated with it, in the hopes it will drag them along in its wake.

That sounds powerful. So, you think you are “emerging”?

Well, not necessarily. I don’t think it’s the sort of thing that is or isn’t, but I could see it this year. I was close enough to glimpse it and feel its effects on my career.

Do you think you will continue to “emerge” in 2016?

I hope so. Traditionally, I am pretty strategic in my approach to – well, anything. I’ll capitalize on anything I can get hold of and leverage. Traditionally.

But I tell you what throws a wrench in that kind of ambition: depression. In my case, ambition is powered by a combination of hubris, manic energy, and a reckless love of new experiences. Depression is like descending to the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Everything is dark, oppressive, and heavy. You try to work yourself up, but it’s like wading through shoulder-deep mud. Nothing moves fast enough. Nothing sparkles. You get tired and need to lie down.

People talk about self-care, about just burying yourself in blankets, drinking tea, and binge-watching Outlander. But some days I feel like there’s a shooting star passing right over my head, and if I got out my net, I could hook it and ride it to somewhere amazing. But I’m mired in sludge, my limbs are too heavy, and I won’t get unstuck in time to catch it…

You’re starting to make me uncomfortable.

Ha! Sorry. But let’s face it: this is a conflict a lot of creative people feel. Madness and art has gone hand in hand for millennia, and I don’t know many creative people who don’t also struggle with one form or another of mental illness. A lot of us feel like our neurodifferences are what give us that creative spark and treating it can be scary. But the lows can be equally devastating. And all the while, the creative markets want the wildest, maddest parts of us. Those years when we are at our worst might produce some of our best work.

Where are you at right now? Producing your best work at your worst, or taking care of yourself?

I’m hoping to prove to myself that it doesn’t have to be either/or. I’m doing a lot better now. I’ve finished two new stories for submission and just started a new La Héron story that I love already. I feel like the act of just settling into a good story, not worrying about whether it will be publishable or “what people want”, is self-care in and of itself. One of my new stories is 100% catharsis – and I love it. Wouldn’t it be great if my best work was the stuff that makes me feel better?

Your work has never struck me as being very touchy-feely.

No, no, it isn’t. What makes me feel better isn’t tea and blankets – it’s kicking my problems in the face. There is a lot of ass-kicking in my catharsis.

Phew.

I know, right?

Do you have any resolutions for 2016? Where do you expect to be on January 1st, 2017?

I think my resolutions are probably going to be the same as they were for 2015 – only maybe I will succeed this time. Write more, read more, focus.

And January 1st, 2017? I expect to be here, doing exactly this. Though, maybe with a lottery win or an awards nod under my belt. How about it, life? *wiggles eyebrows* Come at me, 2016.

Charlotte Ashley is a writer, editor, and bookseller in Toronto, Canada. When she isn’t interviewing herself or engaging in her three professions, she is managing the affairs of her two genius daughters, training at parkour, playing Hearthstone, baking, and starting ill-fated secret societies. She really appreciates being solicited for submissions, interviews, and opinions. She can be reached at charlotte@once-and-future.com.

June 2015: I have to remember this month. It has been a serious banner month for me as a writer, and I’m only just beginning to really digest it all!

I’ve had two stories published!

The first, “Sigrid Under the Mountain,” is in the Summer 2015 issue of The Sockdolager. This is a light and funny story about a feisty and rather cranky woman just trying to live an ordinary life in a world filled with magic, monsters, heroes and villains. “What’s the point of marrying a great, celebrated hero if he won’t even keep kobolds from harrying your cow?” Indeed.

The second, “The Posthuman Condition,” is in the Summer 2015 issue of Kaleidotrope. This is the story of Jesse, an unpaid intern at a transhumanist nightclub, having the worst night of her life. It lands somewhere between splatter horror and cyberpunk with a dose of myth thrown in. TW: suicides. “The God of Post-Man:Who Chooses the Posthuman Condition? A Folly by Jesse Bauman. And Friends.”

I’ve also sold three short stories this month!

I have sold my alt-history Revolutionary-era Quebec novelette, “More Heat Than Light,” to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. This will be my second appearance in F&SF and I’m OVER THE MOON about it. Publication date unconfirmed, but possibly early 2016.

I sold another alt-history, “Eleusinian Mysteries,” to Luna Station Quarterly.This is the story of a Javanese-Dutch mapmaker who discovers a map of a city on the moon, and a secret Dutch East India Company plan to travel there. Publication date September 2015.

The third sale is still a secret, but I hope the TOC will be announced soon! I like having announcements. This is a thing I could serious get used to…